Chapter Text
Lucy Rhodes was uncharacteristically glaring at the back wall of the school library. Usually the optimistic one of their motley group of friends, it was no surprise that the sour expression on her face brought visible discomfort to the Mertens brothers. Both of whom were sitting beside her on one of the long tables in the centre of the room, primarily there for students to sit and study at. Of course, they were more often than not used for socialising and pen throwing.
Bonnibel kind of had to smile a little bit to herself as she walked through the doors, though; seeing how wary the two boys seemed, watching on as Lucy chewed on the end of her pencil. In fact, Lucy was so intent on frowning at nothing in particular that she didn’t even acknowledge that Bonnibel had walked in, just continued to sit and frown.
Bonnibel used her friend's blinding anger to stoop down next to the eldest brother as she rounded the table unnoticed. “What’s she mad about?”
“Grady gave her an F this morning and she hasn’t been the same since.” Jake replied in an equally quiet tone. “You didn’t hear that from me though.” And he gave her a cheeky wink and a grin.
Bonnibel rolled her eyes and patted him on the shoulder as she seated herself next to her rather ireful best friend. Lucy acknowledged her for the first time since she’d entered the room, rolling her hazel eyes to meet Bonnibel’s blue ones. Then her bottom lip quivered and Bonnibel found herself being launched at. “He failed me.” Lucy wailed dramatically into her shoulder, gripping Bonnibel’s forearms too tight for her friend to comfortably hug her back. “My parents think I’m doing great.”
“It was only a history essay, Lu,” Bonnibel soothed, trying her best to rub Lucy’s shoulders with her limited movement. “I’m sure they’d understand it’s not super important for your end of year grades.”
“Plus,” Finn interjected the conversation, not looking up from his textbook as he waved his finger in the air. “Grady’s known for being a hard ass. Tell them he was being unfair, it’s not totally unbelievable.”
“True.” Bonnibel agreed.
Lucy pulled away from Bonnibel’s shoulder with the frown still on her face and turned to Finn. At least she wasn’t glaring at walls anymore. “I guess you have a point. What did you get in Maths?”
“I got a C. Bonnibel, as always, got an A.” Finn gave Bonnibel a knowing look. “Because she spends all her spare time being a know-it-all.” And another Mertens brother wink was thrown Bonnibel’s way.
Lucy’s frown disappeared in place for a smile as she turned back to Bonnibel. “That reminds me, did White talk to you guys about the-,”
“Mandatory study groups starting next week?” Bonnibel finished for her. “Yeah, we were given the run down of it all. Why?”
“Well,” Lucy sang. “We can group together. Well, plus a few other kids, I guess. At least that way we won’t be stuck with any randoms. Don’t you agree, Jacob?”
Jake blinked. “What am I agreeing to now?”
“We can group together for mandatory study, babe.” Lucy explained. “We’re gonna need a couple extra people to meet the required amount, though.”
“Oh,” Jake scratched his head in thought. “I mean, it’d definitely work out better.”
“We’re basically a study group already.” Finn pointed out, looking away from his textbook to grin boyishly. “Who are we recruiting to join us?”
“What are we talking about, library dwellers?” A familiar voice came from the doorway. The group looked up at Marshall, already making his way to sit down across from them with his hands in his pockets. “Any hot gossip for me today?”
“We’re trying to figure out who we can get to join our study group.” Bonnibel explained, ignoring the disgusted grimace that crossed his face. “Also, hot gossip? I didn’t think Ellen had hired you as one of her spies, Marshall.”
“You don’t need to worry about that,” Marshall replied coolly, leaning back onto two legs on his chair. “Ellen's scared I’ll hit on her if she talks to me.”
“Because you hit on everyone , dude.” Jake said. “Anyway, do you know anyone that’d be willing to join our group?”
“Ew.” Marshall grimaced once more. “As if I’d know anyone nerdy enough to want to join a study group .”
“I mean, you could always tell us and join yourself so you don’t get stuck with someone like Ellen.” Lucy offered. “But it’s fine if you don’t want to.”
All four legs were safely back on the ground. Marshall rolled his eyes upwards in consideration before giving Lucy a flat look. “Fine. I’ll ask Guy if he and his music geeks wanna join in too. Jake, you know Bongo, right?”
“He’s in the wrestling team,” Jake nodded. “He’s alright.”
“There you go then,” Marshall smirked. “I’ll go ask ‘em now in case Grady eats me for being late or something, splitsville dorks.”
“He’ll lock you in the janitors closet and throw away the key, more like.” Finn chuckled, closing his textbook. “I’ll come with, I have to go that way for my next lesson.” He followed Marshall out of the library, idly chatting about something Bonnibel could no longer here from the table as he rounded the table.
“Well,” She announced. “I better get going too. I have some errands to run for Miss Berry.”
“I swear you’re the only student who does things for the teachers.” Lucy rolled her eyes.
Bonnibel shrugged as she stood from the table, waving at them both as she headed towards the door. “It’s a nice thing to do.” She called back over her shoulder before disappearing into the hallway.
“Your daughter’s home.” Bonnibel sang, kicking the front door closed with her heel. She discarded her bag at the foot of the stairs for when she’d eventually go up to her room later and tugged off her pink converse, kicking them to the side next to the already full shoe rack.
Her mother, Kim, poked her smiling face round the kitchen door frame. “Hi, honey. I’m just starting your dad’s lunch. How’d it go at the meeting with your history teacher today?”
Bonnibel shrugged, following her mother to the kitchen to help prepare her father's food. “He said I was doing well and suggested I start doing some of the advanced work. So, just like all the other meetings with my teachers have gone this year.”
“I’m so proud of you,” Her mother wrapped her up in a half hug, rubbing at Bonnibel’s arm as she smiled. “Your dad will be so happy to hear it, Bonnie. Did he say anything else?”
“Not really, he seemed really genuine about it though, unlike White.” Bonnibel muttered, taking a spoon from the side to start stirring the pasta in the pan. “Oh, that reminds me. We’re doing mandatory studying in groups from next week onwards.”
“That sounds exciting, are the groups already planned out.”
“They’re letting us decide who we want to study with, with certain size limits of course. Me, Lucy, Finn, Jake and Marshall and a few of his friends are going to group up together.” She shrugged. “It should be fun, I think.”
“It sounds fun,” Kim agreed. “Marshall’s the one who thinks he’s funny, right?”
Bonnibel laughed. “He can be funny. He’s also the guy that flirts with everyone , so that might be interesting.”
“And what about you?”
“What about me?” Bonnibel frowned.
“Who have you been flirting with, Bonnie.” Her mother teased.
“No one,” Bonnibel admitted truthfully. “I’ve been flirting with the idea of moving my usual homework days to Sunday mornings instead of doing it on Friday evenings, though. It’ll give me more energy to hang out with friends on Saturdays.”
“It would be good to see you get out of the house more,” Kim nodded. “Should I start bringing your breakfast to the garage on Sundays, then?”
“If it’s no trouble with you? You could always call me from the kitchen.”
“Don’t worry about it, Bonnie. I know how much my daughter values her school work.”
Bonnibel smiled. “Thanks mum, you’re the best.”
There was a ping from Bonnibel’s computer and a notification from the group chat Lucy had created months prior popped up in the corner shortly afterwards, drawing her attention to the message and then the time. 11:04PM. Had she really been reading that long?
Bonnibel didn’t need to fully read the message to know what it read; she was already five minutes late to their usual video chatting session, and opened the notification and clicked the big green Join Call button.
“ Bonnibel ,” Jake’s voice came through her earphones as his video crackled to life on screen, pixelated and blurry as usual. “ How nice of you to finally join us .”
“I was reading,” Bonnibel defended herself, glaring at his little face on her screen, and then at the equally blurred and pixelated person next to him. “Is that Finn with you?”
“ Hey, Bonnibel ,” Finn greeted. “ Lucy went to the bathroom real quick but she should be back soon .” That explained the empty frame of Lucy’s bedroom. Bonnibel just nodded.
“Do you know if Marshall asked his friends about the study group, Finn?”
“ I don’t know. I didn’t follow him that long, just to my class. We could see if he’s online, though .”
“ See if who’s online ?” Lucy was heard before she was seen, appearing on camera in a flurry of pixels. At least her camera quality was better than Jake’s.
“ We’re asking Marshall if he asked Guy and Bongo to join our group .” Jake explained to his girlfriend as Bonnibel clicked onto her direct messages with Marshall.
“He’s online, should I invite him to join our call?”
“ You could just message him . ” Lucy replied. “ Ask if he’s dating Melissa, too. ”
Bonnibel frowned. “Why would he be dating Melissa?” She asked, tapping out the two questions anyway. “I thought he didn’t hang out with that crowd.”
Bonnibel (11:08PM): Hey Marshall, just wondering if you ever asked your friends about the study group? Also, Lucy asks ‘Are you dating Melissa’? :I
“ Ellen wanted to know, I didn’t ask why she wanted to know .” Lucy explained. “ You know what she’s like. ”
“Gossip, gossip, gossip.” Bonnibel drawled, nodding and clicking back onto the call. “What’s Bongo like, Jake?”
“ Uh, he’s good at wrestling, I think. Hangs out with Guy Fellows and that other chick in the spare music rooms. He’s the guy who helped Marshall TP the cafeteria last year .”
“ I didn’t even know Marshall hung out with the band geeks. ” Lucy said. “ But I guess it makes sense. ”
Finn laughed. “ Marshall talks to Guy the most after school in the parking lot. I think he just knows Bongo and a few of the other band weirdos through association.”
“You say weirdos like you don’t hang out with the resident nerd.” Bonnibel replied flatly. “Just because we know Ellen doesn’t mean we’re on the same social status as her. In fact, I’d say we’re on par with the music kids.”
“ Well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean we can’t bully them for hanging out in the music rooms all day. It’s a reflection on our self depreciation. The library isn’t a better hang out spot, let’s be real here. ” Lucy retorted playfully. “ And anyway, doesn’t -,”
Ping .
“Oh, Marshall messaged me back, hold on.”
Marshall (11:14PM): guy and bongo are joining also lmao im not dating melissa what ?
Bonnibel (11:15PM): Awesome, thanks! Also, I kind of figured you weren’t :)
“He’s not dating Melissa, also they’re joining our study group so we should be good.”
“ Hell yeah. ” Finn celebrated. “ That should be enough members, right? ”
“Should be, yeah.” Bonnibel nodded. “Also, I’m adding Marshall to the call. I hate switching between chat and call.”
“ Doesn’t Marshall have- ”
“ What’s popping losers, ” Marshall’s audio cut off Lucy as he joined the call, brushing hair out of his face as he leaned in to look at his screen. “ How goes it? ”
“You’re joining our study group, Marshall, that makes you a loser too.”
“ Oh, word. I guess I should stop calling you guys losers then if I’m going to be hanging out with you more often. ”
“ Or ,” Jake cut in, drawing out the vowel so no one would talk over him. “ You could stop calling people losers full stop .”
“ Didn’t your brother just call Marshall’s friends weirdos a minute ago?” Lucy asked, brow popping up. “ Where was this anti bullying speech then, babe? ”
“ Nah, Finn has a point.” Marshall laughed. “ Guy and Bongo are weirdos. You guys aren’t even losers. You just do nerd shit all the time. ”
“ Correction, Bonnibel does nerd shit all the time. We just put up with her nerd shit . ” Jake teased, earning a laugh from the others.
“You won’t be saying that when I’m carrying you all to A’s next week.” Bonnibel reminded them. “Then it’ll be ‘Thank you Bonnibel’ and ‘You’re so smart we love you so much’.”
“ We do love you, B. But you’re a huge fucking nerd. Take it as a compliment .” Lucy replied.
Bonnibel rolled her eyes and leaned back dramatically defeated in her desk chair, earning laughter from her four friends.
It was well past midnight when they all hung up the call.